The best part for me about TAS is that artists and writers continually bring new discoveries to my attention. I am delighted to know and present work of Brazilian photographer Choque; I first saw his photographs when researching images for an article by Christina Roiter, our writer from Rio, who reported on the São Paulo Bienal [see Vol III, No. 1 (January 2009) "Pichação at the São Paulo Bienal: Art or Crime?"]. Both artist and documentarian, Choque has generously allowed us to reproduce his gorgeous images here. There is something about the golden light and sensation of triumph, both visual and physical, in these works that I find exalting. In one of those treasured moment of synchronicity, Michael Klein asked if I was interested in his writing about the retrospective devoted to Sol Lewitt's wall drawings at MASS MoCA. The parallels between the Brazillian graffiti artists Choque documents and Lewitt's wall drawings, in terms of both their use of scale and the desire for community their work reflects, could not please me more. 

On a different note, Robert Stalker has written about the films of Joseph Cornell. Although I am a fan of this artist of Utopia Parkway [a real place in Queens, New York where the artist lived], I did not know of his films. Stalker's profound insights into Cornell’s film work have many current parallels in the ways many video artists work by replacing sound and using found footage. But most interesting to me is the way Cornell translated his sensibility from one medium to another, from the boxed assemblages for which he is best known to film. Still more exciting than that is the way color has a voice here at TAS this month--the blue of the Cornell’s film still, the gold in Choque's photographs, and the intensity of Lewitt's color. Ah . . . good competition for Spring! 

All my best,

Deanna